Flying Gold Charms For St Patrick’s Day STEM

Introduce your little leprechauns to a simple fun physics activity and use these cute Lucky Charms at the same time! Launching objects into the air makes kids laugh, and some adults too! Squeals of delight as things fly across the room, what could be better? Learn how to make a Popsicle Stick Catapult for a fun St Patrick’s Day activity!

HOW TO BUILD A POPSICLE STICK CATAPULT!

CATAPULT CONSTRUCTION

Get ready to add this simple physics activity, building a Popsicle Stick Catapult to your STEM lesson plans this season. If you want to learn about Newton’s 3 laws of Motion, let’s dig in! While you’re at it, make sure to check out these other fun St Patrick’s Day activities.

Our science activities and experiments are designed with you, the parent or teacher, in mind! Easy to set up, quick to do, most activities will take only 15 to 30 minutes to complete and are heaps of fun! Plus, our supplies lists usually contain only free or cheap materials you can source from home!

POPSICLE STICK CATAPULT ACTIVITY

Let’s get right to learning how to make a St. Patrick’s Day catapult! Head to the craft closet or the junk drawer and be amazed at what you can turn your simple supplies into! Get ready for the giggles, they’re coming soon!

This catapult construction activity asks the question: How do levers work and what happens to that energy?

YOU WILL NEED:

10 Jumbo green craft sticks for each catapult

Gold candy/Lucky Charms

Rubber bands

Bottle cap lid

Hot glue/hot glue gun/sticky tape

Scissors/knife

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HOW TO MAKE A POPSICLE STICK CATAPULT:

STEP 1: Make predictions. Which object will fly the farthest? Why do you think one will fly farther than the other?

STEP 2: Hand out supplies to each individual or in small groups, and build a Popsicle stick catapult following the instructions below.

Read more about the science behind the catapult and simple ways to create a catapult science experiment below!

STEP 3: Test and measure how far each item goes when flung from the catapult. Record results.

This is a simple and quick Popsicle stick catapult using just two supplies. The best part is that you can also grab the supplies at the dollar store! Check out how we stock our dollar store engineering kit.

Adult supervision and assistance is highly recommended when using scissors.

You will want to use a pair of scissors to make two v notches on either side of two jumbo craft or Popsicle sticks (in the same place on both sticks). Use the photo below as a guide for where to make your notches.

Adults: This is a great step to prep ahead of time if you are making these popsicle stick catapults with a large group of kids.

Once you have made your notches in two of the sticks, set them aside!

Take the remaining 8 craft sticks and stack them one on top of the other. Wind a rubber band tightly around each end of the stack.

Go ahead and push on of the notched sticks through the stack under the top stick of the stack. Make sure to watch the video again to see this done.

At this point flip your partially made popsicle stick catapult over so that the stick you just pushed in is on the bottom of the stack.

Lay the second notched stick on top of the stack and secure the two popsicle sticks together with a rubber band as shown below. The V notches that you cut help to keep the rubber band in place.

Create more leverage with your catapult by pushing the stack of popsicle sticks towards the notched ends connected by the rubber band. Read about the science behind this below!

VARIATION: You can also make a popsicle stick catapult with a spoon which is especially great for holding objects like plastic Easter eggs or fake eyeballs. Check out two ways to place the spoon below!

SIMPLE QUESTIONS TO GET YOUR YOUNG LEARNER THINKING

What is happening when you push the lever down and release it? (OBSERVATION)

When did the candy fly the farthest? (EXPLANATION)

Can you think of any everyday examples of how a catapult would be helpful? How about a lever arm? How about a see-saw on the playground? (APPLICATION)

Click below to get your quick and easy STEM challenges.

A variety of new activities, which are engaging and not too long!

THE SCIENCE OF CATAPULT CONSTRUCTION

This is a great simple physics activity for kids of multiple ages. What is there to explore that has to do with physics? Let’s start with energy including elastic potential energy. You can also learn about projectile motion.

Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion: An object at rest stays at rest until a force is applied, and an object will stay in motion until something creates an imbalance in the motion. Every action causes a reaction.

When you pull down the lever arm all that potential energy gets stored up! Release it and that potential energy gradually changes over to kinetic energy. Gravity also does its part as it pulls the object back down to the ground.

If you want to delve deeper into Newton’s Laws, check out the information here

You can talk about stored energy or potential elastic energy as you pull back on the Popsicle stick, bending it. When you release the stick all that potential energy is released into energy in motion producing the projectile motion.

A catapult is a simple machine that has been around for ages. Have your kids dig up a little history and research when the first catapults were invented and used! Hint; check out the 17th century!